1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to merchandize transactions and, more particularly, to an automated method and system for making such transactions.
2. Description of Prior Art
Grocery shopping is typically a tedious and time-consuming chore. For example, a shopper must typically drive to the grocery store, find a parking spot and park his or her vehicle, walk to the store from the parking lot, find a shopping cart, walk through numerous isles to find and retrieve products needed, line up at a counter to pay a cashier, wait for the products to be sacked, take the purchased items to the vehicle, and return the shopping cart. This process can be particularly difficult and tiresome for shoppers with young children and for the elderly.
Once in the store, the shopper may be disappointed to find that certain items are unavailable (e.g., they may be sold out or not even carried by the store). To keep items from being sold out, stores often keep greater inventories of products available than they expect to sell. This is a costly practice particularly with perishable goods (such as refrigerated products like milk) since unsold products often become spoiled and are wasted.
There are substantial overhead costs associated with operating traditional grocery stores, which typically are large supermarkets. For instance, serving customers requires many employees (e.g., product stockers, cashiers, personnel to clean and maintain the store, and personnel to manage cash received from customers). A large parking lot must be provided for customer vehicles. The store is typically large and on a single floor with wide isles to accommodate shopping carts. The store must also be well lit and aesthetically maintained.
The vast majority of merchandize sold at grocery stores is standardized, and product manufacturers typically exercise careful quality control on the products they make. As a result, one item on a store shelf (such as a box of cereal of a particular brand and size) will be identical for all practical purposes to an item of the same brand and size stacked behind it. Consequently, there is little need for shoppers to inspect the particular products they want before making the purchase.
Recently, a number of Internet-based grocery shopping systems have been introduced. For example, companies like peapod.com allow shoppers to place orders online for groceries to be delivered to their homes. While these new online businesses offer several advantages over traditional grocery stores, they in some respects are operated in similar fashion to the traditional stores and face many of the same problems. In addition, these businesses face the problem of the high cost and difficulty of delivering ordered products to customers.
A need exists for an improved method and system for selling merchandize, especially groceries.